Discuss the main principles of a developmental psychopathology ...

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Discuss the main principles of a developmental psychopathology perspective.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Explain why an integrative approach is important in abnormal psychology.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

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Answer to Question 1

Developmental psychopathology is an approach to describing and studying disorders of childhood, adolescence, and beyond in a manner that emphasizes the importance of developmental processes and tasks. This approach provides a useful framework for organizing the study of abnormal child psychology around milestones and sequences in physical, cognitive, socialemotional, and educational development. It also uses abnormal development to inform normal development, and vice versa (Cicchetti, 2006; Hinshaw, 2013). Simply stated, developmental psychopathology emphasizes the role of developmental processes, the importance of context, and the influence of multiple and interacting events in shaping adaptive and maladaptive development. We adopt this perspective as an organizing framework to describe the dynamic, multidimensional process leading to normal or abnormal outcomes in development.

Answer to Question 2

Each model is restricted in its ability to explain abnormal behavior to the extent that it fails to incorporate important components of other models. Fortunately, such disciplinary boundaries are gradually diminishing as different perspectives take into account important variables derived from other models. Over time, major theories of abnormal child psychology have become compatible with one another. Rather than offering contradictory views, each theory contributes one or more pieces of the puzzle of atypical development. As all the available pieces are assembled, the picture of a particular child or adolescent disorder becomes more and more distinct.